Shower-bath apparatus



No. 6|6,668. A Patented Dec. 27, |898. A. S. HILLS.

SHDWER BATH APPARATUS.

(Application led Jan. 5, 1898.)

(No Model.)

IINITnn STATES PATENT FFICE.

ALBERT S. HILLS, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

SHOWER-BATH APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part er Letters Patent No. 616,666, aerea December 2v, 189s. Application led January 5, 1898. Serial No. 665,668. (ITO model To @ZZ whom t may concern.-

Beit known that I, ALBERT S. HILLS, a citi- Zen of the United States, residing in Springeld, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Shower-Bath Apparatus; of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to shower-bath apparatus, and it has for its main object the provision of an improved apparatus of this class in which the curtain holder or ring and the shower device will be capable of a wide range of adjustment when in use and may be swung around out of the way at other times. In connection with this adjustable curtain-ring I employ arose-head cooperative therewith in such a manner that when the curtain-ring is adj usted the rose-head will be shifted with it, whether the movement of the curtain-holder be toward and from the wall or in a horizontal plane or in any other direction, it being understood, of course, that no matter what the position may be to which the curtain-ring is shifted the rose-head will always be maintained in proper connection with any suitable source of watersupply- In the drawings accompanying and forming part of this specication, Figure lis a front elevation of one form of my improved shower-bath apparatus. Fig. 2 is a sectional side elevation of the saine. Fig. 3 is a sectional plan of the same and Fig. 4 is a sectional side elevation of a modied form of the apparatus, this view illustrating also the manner in which the curtain-holder may be turned around out of the way when the apparatus is not in use.

Similar characters designate like parts in all the figures of the drawings.

My improved shower-bath apparatus will usually be supported in the ordinary Inanner above a fixed bath-tub; but it will be olovious that it may be used also in connection with a portable tub or similar vessel.

In the construction illustrated the shower apparatus is secured to the wall of a room in some suitable manner.

For the purpose of properly mounting the curtain-rin g and the rose-head ,through which the shower is supplied, I prefer to make use of a wall-bracket, on which the curtain-holder will be supported, the rose-head being carried by and moving with said curtain-holder. he wall-bracket which I employ may be of any suitable construction; but I deem it advantageous to make use of one substantially of the type indicated in the drawings, in which the bracket embodies a substantially verticalmember or rod secured directly to the wall, and a projecting arm adapted to swing toward and from the wall.

Referring first to the construction shown in Figs. l to 3, inclusive, 2 designates the vert-ical portion or rod of the bracket and may be fastened to the wall by suitable holding devices or clamps-such, for example, as those shown at 3 and 4, respectively. The latter has a socket or step therein for receiving the foot of the rod 2, and in this socket the rod may be adjusted slightly in vertical direction, it being retained in its adjusted position in some suitable manner, as by a clamp-screw 14. At the upper end thereof the rod 2 may be connected with a substantially horizontal bracket-arm, such as 5, prefl erably tubular, as indicated herein, and within the opening in the arm 5 a second arm 6 may work. The two arms 5 and 6 constitute two sections of an adjustable bracket-arm and form, as will be obvious, a telescoping connection. These parts, with the vertical rod 2, constitute as a whole a wall-bracket, which is designated in a general way by B.

At the outer end thereof the arm 6 of the bracket may be connected iu any suitable manner with a curtain holder or ring O of ordinary construction. This connection will be made at any suitable point in the ring, and at a diametrically opposite point therein the ring may be connected to the arm 5 of the bracket.

The connection between the rod G and the curtain-ring will preferably be a permanent one, but that with the arm 5 may be an adjustable connection, which will permit the curtain-ring to be adjusted toward and from the wall W as the rod 6 is pushed into or withdrawn from the tubular arm 5.

The connection between the curtain-ring C and the tubular arm 5 will be made, preferably, by means of a sliding clamp '7, which may be shifted to any desired position on the arm 5 and `will be secured usually to a cross piece or rod of the curtain-ring by means of a clamp-screw 7'. This cross-piece of the curtain-ring C is intended to carry a rosehead, such as a", and it consists of two tubular members or pipes S 8, connected at their outer ends to the annular portion of the curtain-holder and at their inner ends by means of a union 9, to which also the rose-head is secured. At the outer end of the inner section S the usual hose-pipep may be connected to any suitable source of water-supply.

Vhere the apparatus is set up for use in connection with a bath-tub provided with a supply of hot and cold water, of course the temperature of the shower can be regulated in the ordinary manner as well as the force of the spray.

In connection with the bracket-arm 5 I prefer to employ means for limiting the outward movement of the curtain-holder, and hence of the rose-head, for any previously-ascertained position in which it is desired to use the shower. For this purpose I have illustrated at 12 a stop-sleeve which may be slid along the pipe 5 and clamped in any desired position by means of a screw 12'. This sleeve will thus form a fixed stop for limiting the outward movement of the clamp 7 after the latter has been adjusted properly, and the whole constitutes a very simple and convenient means for permitting the shower to be brought into place quickly and stopped at the right point after the parts have once been set.

The usual curtain (indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 1) will of course be suspended from the curtain-holder C, as by means of the small curtain-rings. (Also shown in dotted lines in said figure.) This curtain-ring will be an ordinary rubber one to prevent the scattering of the water.

In Fig. 4 I have illustrated a modification of my invention in which the upright member of the wall-bracket is in the form of a water-pipe 2', the lower end of which maybe connected in any suitable manner with the pipes of a house system or by means of a hose with any other source of supply. This pipe 2' may also be adjusted slightly in vertical direction in the wall-clamps 3' and 4' and held in place by the clamp-screw 14. In this case the tubular horizontal arm of the bracket, which arm connects with the upright 2', is indicated by 5' and is screw-threaded at its outer end for the reception of apacking-ring 15 of any suitable type, through which the outer section of the horizontal arm of the bracket B' will extend into the section This outer section is indicated by G' and is curved to form an elbow, to the outer end of which the rose-head is secured. It will be clear that in such a construction as this a clear passage is provided through the connected parts from the lower end of the pipe 2' to the rose-head, and that no matter what the position to which the bracket-arm may be swung or the curtain-holder moved toward and from the wall IV the supply of water to the rose-head r will be unaffected by such change in the relative positions of the parts of the shower-bath apparatus. In this case of course the pipe 6' will be suitably supported, as by means of the arm S', secured to the curtain-holder and to the pipe 6.

In both forms of my improved shower apparatus illustrated herein the parts are capable of a very Wide range of adjustment, which, in fact, is practically universal. By simply loosening the clamp 7 all of the parts connected directly to the curtain-holder and the rosehead may be shifted along the arm 5 toward or from the wall, and by loosening the clampscrew 14 these parts may be swung around at any desired angle to bring the shower apparatus directly over the tub or vessel into which the showeris to be directed. When the proper angle is obtained, the screw 14 will of course be tightened again.

In addition to the adjustments just described the curtain-holder is intended to turn on the arm 5 or 5', as the case may be, peripherally of this bracket-arm, so as to bring` this curtain-holder and the rose-head to the positions shown in dotted lines in Fig. 4. This adjustment is obtained by simply turning the parts around, as indicated, whereupon the bracket as a whole may be swung toward the wall, where the apparatus will be out of the way. This permits of the use of my improved shower apparatus on the wall of a room not furnished with a bath-tub and in which an ordinary portable tub or vessel is used in connection with the apparatus. XVhen this portable vessel is removed, the shower apparatus may be folded back against the wall and a curtain or portire drawn over the same to hide the apparatus from View, while leaving all of its parts in readiness for use. My improved shower-bath apparatus is therefore adapted for use in places where similar devices as heretofore constructed could not be applied.

Having described my invention, I claim-1 1. In a shower-bath apparatus, the combination, with a wall-bracket,- of a curtainholder adjustable on said bracket,`and a rosehead carried by, and movable with, the cur'- tain-holder. l

2. In a shower-bath apparatus,- the combination, with a wall-bracket having an arm projecting therefrom, of a curtain-holder adjustable along said arm toward and from the wall, a rose-head carried by, and movable with, the curtain-holder, and a telescoping connection between said arm and the curtainholder.

3. In a shower-bath apparatus, the combination, with a wall-bracket having an arm projecting therefrom, of a curtain-holder adj ustable along said arm toward and from the wall, and a pair of stops carried, respectively, by said arm and the curtain-holder, one of said stops being adjustable.

4. In a shower-bath apparatus, the combi- IIO nation, with a Wall-bracket having an arm projecting therefrom embodying a pair of telescoping sections, of a curtain-holder xed to the outer section of said bracket-arm and adjustabiy connected with the other section, and arose-head carried by, and movable with, the curtain-holder.

5. In a shower-bath apparatus, the combination, With a Wall-bracket having an arm projecting therefrom embodying a pair of tubular telesooping sections, of a curtainholder fixed to the outer section of such bracket-arm and adjustabiy connected With the other section, and a rose-head carried by said curtain-holder and communicating with 15 the outer section of the bracket-arm.

(3. In a shower-bath apparatus, the combination, with a Wall-bracket having an arm projecting therefrom, of a curtain-holder adjustable along said arm toward and from the 2o wail, and also adjustable around said arm.

ALBERT S. HILLS,

Vitnesses:

FRED. J. DOLE, HENRY BISSELL. 

